Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Woohoo. Blogging time. It's 9:32pm, and the hours are counting down too Thanksgiving day. Angel and I are waking up at 6:00am for the ziti and then 7:00am for the turkey. Which means Angel's probably going to be staying up between 6:00 and 7:00. I will be in bed sleeping thank you very much. Alright.. Probably not. Ill be in the kitchen with Angel.

So for the Pre-pre turkey day round up. The adventures I was talking about? Last night, when our brine turned colors, we made a new one. Thankfully that one kept it's pretty color until today. But.. while we were adding cold water to warm water, Angel decided it'd be a good thing to dump brine onto the floor and us twice. we had salt and sugar everywhere, and the kitchen still hasn't recovered. I'm going to go in there soon and do all the pre-cleaning. Sweeping, mopping, washing dishes, and maybe cleaning the oven. I should.. but I'm not sure if I should. We shall see.

In other news.. There's been something on my mind that I just haven't had time to blog about. I love, love, love, love the Monster High dolls. They are everything I wanted from my dolls growing up. I tried to goth, glam rock my dolls up. And then when I'm in my twenties.. Tada! Monster High dolls. Woohoo. I finally just got the vampire girl..

I can't explain to you how pissed off I am. I was in my world of happy, thinking about where I'd display her, and what to do with the little extras when I turned her around to check that her stand was in the right place... and I was faced with doll ass checks. Her "mini" is so mini that there is nothing there to cover her ass. Now.. I know.. It's a doll. But.. We're selling those to children? What is that teaching them? Not only should a doll's ass be covered.. As a gothrockertype girl.. Who happens to wear plaid skirts.. Why are we being showcased to wear our skirts so short? Yes, some girls do, but not all of us. I still can't believe it. I'm very seriously thinking about writing Mattel. I haven't whipped out the pen and paper yet.. but soon I might.

Oh me, oh my. Tonight was going to be my blog night since last night Angel had the honors. Yet, my dears, it's 4:00 in the morning and I'm about a pass out on the laptop. Brining was... Let's just say if we weren't smart, we might have ended up with a gray-blue turkey that no one would have touched with a ten foot pole. I wish I could even explain what happened to the brine we made last night but.. Angel and I have no clue. I pulled it out of the fridge and it wasn't the pretty clear pink it was after we made it. Oh well we said, and put another pot to boil.

I'll explain all the another kitchen adventures tomorrow. After shopping adventures.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

It feels a little redundant to gripe about my holiday woes yet again, but if I can't vent it out here, then where do I go?

First, The Good. We've got our turkey defrosting. We picked him up last week at the Halt and Buy. 58 cents a pound isn't quite the awesome 10 cents a pound sale from last year, but that was still the best deal in the city. He's a lovely twenty-three pounds, and this year Punky has named him Spartacus. He's actually what prompted the blogging tonight. It's Brine night here at Casa ... us. Almost forgot the anonymity thing.

So, there's a giant pot of water getting up to a boil on the stove, Punky on dishes, and me at the computer. I don't know if I've talked about it in detail before but we've got one cursed ass house. Haunted like nobody's business, and topsy turvy in the strangest of ways. Now that it's winter, if we cook a meal it's cold by the time we plate it and take it down the hall to the bedroom. Like, barely edible cold. Of course, if I boil some water and wait for it to cool down, it'll take about three days for it to cool. Topsy turvy.

Soo.. that's why the early start on the brine, just so that it has time to cool down. Good lord though, it has no right to smell this good in the kitchen over just some onions chopped up and thrown in water. I love onions, even if they are a pain to dice. I can't imagine a life without them. I do get to talk to Punky about her life without them though. When we first met, Punky came with a nearly mile long list of things that she would not eat. Onions were, of course, on that list. Now.. she can't live without them.

My current theory on food is that if there's something you don't like, it's only because someone hasn't fixed it right yet. As I get older, this becomes truer and truer for me by the day. I used to be the kind of kid who couldn't tolerate two drops of hot sauce in a dish, and now I make my own curry. I've learned to appreciate spicy food. I've even become fond of sweet potatoes. Also a food I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole back in the day.

Annnnd.. I'm glad to report that Punky has also come a long way on this food journey. In some ways, she's come a lot further than I have, since her previous affairs with food were more like tepid friendships than the true romance that exists now. She eats onions, and tuna fish and even onions in her tuna fish.

Thanksgiving is a great holiday for appreciating our culinary discoveries. Each year I try something a little new with the turkey, a different blend of seasonings or some such change. So far, all hits, no misses.

Speaking of hits and misses, Bullseye totally had an awesome deal going on with games and we picked up Battleship. Punky had never played before and Lady Luck was totally with her. She kicked my butt and now I'm totally looking forward to playing with Bratexander the Great on his holiday break. I think it's a game he'll be able to enjoy. Picking those out really involve some hits and misses.

Is anyone else doing anything for Black Friday? Punky and I are debating the midnight sales. There's not exactly a lot that we're hurting for, and most of the presents we're giving out this year are already picked out and some of them are even stashed in the closet already. Still, a sale is a sale, it might be worth poking it.

In other news, I've come a long way financially from where I was last year. Around this time last year I was approved for my first credit card. A secured line with a small limit, but it was meant to help build my credit report. That it did. My score is looking healthy, and I've gotten a handful of store cards since then. All of them managed quite responsibly, if I do say so myself. No looming debt, no nerves about money. All is in order. I'm just that much closer to the decade dream of a house and car for my family. That much closer to a yard and a garden and all the warm feelings that come with those.

I love New York, I do. It's always going to be my true home, but I can't wait to get out. I'm never going to be free of Satan as long as I stay.

What else is going on? Our new camera came in and I've got one less excuse not to blog. No new exciting pictures to share, but soon. In the meantime, we have some of last years photos still kicking about the computer.

Ta-da!

Brine is done, and I'm off to put my feet up for a bit. I'm kinda looking at a long day tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Woo... I'm still recuperating from all the fun of Halloween weekend, but I've recovered just enough to get back to blogging.

So.. the best of Halloween this year was that it was a full blown three day weekend. This year, instead of being the haunted house in our neighborhood, we decided it was time for Bratexander the Great's first Trick or Treating experience.

We kicked off the weekend at Central Park's Pumpkin Festival. Boy were we glad that this was a rain or shine event. It SNOWED. And good lord did all that snow look lovely in the park. Punky got a handful of pictures, but it was on a borrowed camera so we'll have to wait a while before we can post them up. We each got to pick out a small pumpkin for free, and got goody bags from Radio Disney. There were stickers, candy and lots of other goodies. We also met one of the park's rangers who talked all about the wildlife that could be seen there throughout the year. Best of all, the had a haunted house. This was of course Bratexander's first one ever. It was so good we did it twice... which then sort of became the norm for the weekend.

The next day we went to The Ghoul Pool right here in The Bronx. This was the pool house at Van Cortland Park which was transformed into an awesome haunted house. There were two separate sections so that families could choose to avoid the more scary part if they needed to. We all did the whole thing, and The Brat was a champ almost to the end. Instead of actors jumping out at him being the scary part, the scary part wound up being jello brains. They had that spooky guessing game where you blindly touch gross things. That seemed to be what messed with him the most. But, he got yet another goody bag and some candy, so all was well in the end.

On actual Halloween day we wound up trick or treating in TriBeCa, and Chelsea, before hitting up yet another haunted house and even a haunted forest.

The best part? All of the above adventures were free. Also.. Alex learned a thing or two about courage, lying, and facing his fears.

Bratexander the Great is a very sensitive child. So much so that once upon a time when he was a little younger, people couldn't laugh in his presence without him going into a tizzy thinking that they were laughing at him. Sooo.. parenting him is all about walking a very fine line. I believe that people should be allowed to be sensitive. I believe that boys should be able to cry without shaming. Yadda, yadda. On the other hand I also believe in making children strong, teaching them about having a backbone, etc. I don't think that the walks are mutually exclusive. So, yes he can be sensitive, and cry if his feelings are hurt, but he can also be a self secure boy, who knows how to let some things roll off his back.

The haunted houses turned out to be good teaching tools. At first he tried to lie about not being scared. When confronted about this, he got very upset, but then he grew a pair and decided he wanted to go through the haunted house again. So we did, and he was very brave about it and this time, he could honestly say that he wasn't scared. I hope that it's a lesson that stays with him.

Annnnnndd.... Now..Satan and his family are on the phone, so my thoughts are lost. Till the next blogging episode!